Title: Interviews, Memories, and Everything Else
Author: Alysinomo (alysinomo@hotmail.com)
Rating: PG-13
Archived: 9/25/2002
Spoilers: None.
Disclaimer: I forgot this is the first chapter, sorry! I'm not trying to steal anything. Gilmore Girls and the characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino and the lovely people at the WB.
Summary: Rory has grown up and is now a successful, 28-year-old journalist for the New York Times. She gets the surprise of her life (and one of her biggest career hurdles!) when she is assigned to interview a brilliant new author, Jess Mariano. What will come of Rory and Jess? Will old memories and feelings resurface?
* * *
She knew she was coming, of course she knew, she made the phone call – she just hadn't expected it to be at 5 am. Lorelei pounded on Rory's front door a good 10 minutes before she got a response, and it would be an understatement to say that the neighbours were pissed.
"Rory! Rooorrryyy!!! Open the door! It's your mother! You know, the caffeine-addicted, Stars Hollow resident?!"
- "Hey lady, maybe a little less coffee and a little more Ritalin!"
"Actually, you should see me without coffee, I'm really-"
"Shut up!"
"God. Sorry!" Lorelei responded, not the least bit sincere. By this time, Rory had woken and been fortunate enough to hear the lively conversation between the mother and the neighbour. Dragging herself off the couch, blinking at the blue TV screen on the way by, Rory unlocked the door.
"My baby!" exclaimed Lorelei, sweeping a slightly unresponsive Rory into her arms.
"Hey mom, I'm so glad you're here."
"I bet you are! I brought coffee, fresh Luke's coffee and fresh Luke's donuts –and wow; you really don't look good."
"Gee thanks," replied Rory sarcastically before moaning and flopping back onto the couch, "I really don't feel good."
"What'd you do last night?"
"Well, on top of crying some, I proceeded to watch 'Casablanca' and 'An Affair to remember' while eating an entire tub of ice cream."
"Ughh…tough life." Replied Lorelei, rubbing her back.
"And even though I slept for 10 hours, I feel like I got no sleep at all. And I have to work today, stupid Jay wants the stupid Jess interview – and stupid Jess! I don't even want to know he exists right now!"
"That bad huh?"
"Yes! And Lane! She won't talk to me because I forgot about her concert! I feel terrible! I missed my best friend's concert, my best friend who's really going places – to be with Jess."
"Maybe you should call Lane. And maybe you really care about him."
"I don't know! I don't even know if he's worth it! Everything happened so fast! I don't see him for years, our paths cross again and I sleep with him 3 days later! That's not me! I don't do stupid, thoughtless stuff like that. I don't fall for a guy who builds a brick wall around himself when you ask him a personal question!"
"Ror," Said Lorelei gently, "maybe this isn't as bad as it seems. Maybe Jess does care about you, maybe it's just not about you. Maybe he doesn't want you to get involved because he doesn't want to screw up what you guys are busy making up for. Or maybe he just needs to sort it out himself."
"So you think I'm overreacting?"
"Not necessarily…I just think you haven't properly analyzed the situation. You missed a vital female characteristic in any relationship," replied Lorelei, attemping to make a joke.
"Well, I don't know. I have no clue."
"Don't worry little grasshopper. My daughter has far too awesome karma for her fate to go on the permanent track to Sucksville. Now, go! Shower! Then take me to some awesome local eatery for breakfast."
"I have to work."
"So go to work afterwards. I'll take a taxi home, or wander about New York."
"Will you be able to remember my address to get home?" Rory asked incredulously.
"Phish, yeah!"
Rory smiled and walked towards the bathroom, grabbing the mobile phone on the way by.
* * *
Once in the bathroom, Rory sat down on the toilet seat and punched in the phone number of Lane Kim's apartment. Dave picked up on the second ring,
"Hi, Dave? It's Rory calling, is Lane there?"
"Hi. Yeah, she is. She's pretty upset that you missed the show."
"I'm so sorry about that! I feel terrible. That's why I'm calling."
"Well, I think she'll be glad to hear from you."
"Thanks."
There was a muffled sound as the phone was put down and Dave went to get his girlfriend. Thirty seconds later, Lane's voice came over the line, she sounded like she knew who it was.
"Hello?"
"Lane! God! I'm so sorry!"
"Hey Rory, it's ok. You probably had somewhere else more important to be."
"Ughh...see, I didn't. Well, I did, kinda. It was for work, I had an interview. With Jess Mariano."
"Another one?"
"Yeah, we kinda ran over on the last meeting."
"And let me guess, this second meeting left you preoccupied well into the night."
"I'm so sorry, Lane!"
"Don't worry; at least I know it was for a good reason."
"Really."
"Well yeah, we all knew that sooner or later you and Jess wouldn't be able to keep your hands off each other, literally. I think he'll make you happen."
"I don't know now, Lane. We kinda got into an argument, well not really. I just tried to push him about he estranged relationship with Luke and Liz, he got really defense and left me just standing in the Met."
"He didn't!"
"Yeah, he did."
"Well what are you going to do now?"
"I was thinking of just waiting until he cools off, I'm tired of chasing after him."
"Since when did you ever chase after him?"
"Senior year?"
"Rory, you were still with Dean!"
"Well I would have broken up with him!"
"I don't think Jess knows that."
"Sure he does."
"Not likely, guys are absolutely out of tune when it comes to girls."
"Uh, you're so lucky Lane. Dave's such a great guy."
"I know!" giggled Lane.
"Well I gotta go now. My mom's visiting and we're going to out breakfast."
"Oh, tell her I say hi."
"Will do. Bye Lane. I'm so glad you understand."
"Bye."
"Bye!"
* * *
Rory smoother her hair in the elevator up to the NY Times offices. Running slightly late and thinking about the looming Mariano interview was not helping her mood. Breakfast with Lorelei had been great, they'd only receive 3 shifty looks from fellow patrons.
Once off the elevators, Rory marched determinedly to Jay's office and threw the draft on his desk,
"Done." She declared.
Jay grabbed the papers off his desk, flipping through them once. "Nice work, Gilmore. I'll read it over, and then we'll talk about edits. The plan is for this weekend's paper."
"Ok. Thanks."
Jay peered at her through his reading glasses, "Is everything alright? You look a little off."
"Yeah, I'm fine," replied Rory, rubbing her temples, "Just a little tired, my mom came to visit – at 5 am."
Jay laughed, "Gotta love family. Anyway, I'll just read this over. Work on any minor assignments you have for now."
* * *
"So?! What'd you boss think of the interview?" asked Lorelei enthusiastically later that afternoon.
"He really liked it…said it had a nice 'personal' flair to it. Connected the readers to the 'real' Jess Mariano."
"Oh," winced Lorelei, "Sorry babe."
"No. Don't worry about it, that's my job right?" responded Rory, a little more emotional than planned. She wandered into a nearby coffee shop. Lorelei began to follow, but instead yanked out her cell phone.
"Hey Luke, stupid question, but have you heard from Jess lately?"
Luke's answering machine was all that Lorelei got out of her spontaneous phone call. She wanted answers for her daughter; the super mommy instinct had kicked in. She wasn't going to lie to herself; Rory was being a bit over-dramatic about her and Jess' argument, but seeing her in such distress made Lorelei want to solve all of her problems, no matter how trivial. She really should have expected it though; Jess reappearing in Rory's life was definitely going to put ripples in the pool. The real question was how Rory was going to ultimately handle it; Gilmores weren't exactly hailed for their high maturity and logic in relationships – not the Gilmore girls anyway. Still, she had to suppress the urge to talk to Jess herself and get this thing resolved, but Rory was a big girl.
"Hey mom?" Rory yelled, poking her head out the door, "You coming? Your coffee's freezing up!"
"Coming, coffee bean!" Lorelei smiled, walking into the shop.
Lorelei and Rory stirred their coffees, mixing in the appropriate amounts of milk and sugar. Rory still looked a little down and Lorelei tried to get them off of the subject of Jess.
"So…I heard you talking to Lane this morning, how was it?"
Rory brightened up considerably at the mention of Lane, "Good actually. She was disappointed that I didn't come, but she understood."
"That's so good sweetie! Lane's always been such an awesome kid."
"Yeah. Mom?"
"Yup?"
"Does…does Luke ever talk about Jess, at all?"
"Oh honey…"
"Mom."
Lorelei sighed, "No. But I know he misses Jess, a lot. Even if he did give Luke a hell of a time when he was there."
"Yeah. Often the last person you'd expect becomes the most important."
Lorelei smiled knowingly at Rory, "Well, since we're inadvertently back on the subject of Jess, what are you doing to do about him?"
"Nothing."
Lorelei looked surprised, if Rory cared about him, why wasn't she doing anything? Rory noticed Lorelei expression, "I'm letting him come to me. He said he needed time, I'm giving him time."
Lorelei looked very impressed, "I'm glad you're not letting this get to you – it's never as bad as it seems. You guys will figure it out sooner or later."
Rory smiled at Lorelei, but when her mother looked away, the smile faltered. She wasn't as sure or as a composed as her mother thought. Jess' behaviour bothered her more than she was about to let on. But Lorelei saw right through it, she knew how torn up her daughter was. Oh well, she still deserved points for bravery right?
* * *
The next two days passed fairly uneventfully. Rory worked, Lorelei hung out and pissed off the neighbours. Rory had settled into a somewhat calmer state of mind, until Jess timely showed up on her doorstep.
* * *
A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry for the long long long delay, I'm praying that I still have readers to even read this installment. I took another creative break, I've been losing some steam on this story, but I'm still determined to finish it. A question I have to put to my reviewers is on the spelling of Lorelei/Lorelai – what's the proper spelling? I never bothered to find out when I started this story, I always assumed it was Lorelei, although I have a feeling it's the other way. Another point, as we all know, currently on the show Lane is seeing the charming Dave. Since I like Dave better than my Jared (Lane's fictional boyfriend I created before GG brought on Dave) we're going to say that it was Dave all along – I'm too lazy to change it now. It doesn't really matter anyway; I don't plan on having him become a major character. Finally, for those of you who are still even interested in reading my story, I have the next chapter written! I just have to type it. Unfortunately, I'm unsure of how to write the part after that. I'm sure exactly how I want to form everything. It could take some time. Anyway, thank you for your patience and support!